In my analysis of emotions, it is fairly easy to plot out the inter-relationships between the emotional states, but then I started thinking how the psyche responds to that sphere of influence (I found you can actually map the emotions on to a sphere, consistently).

The first question that arose was, can a person experience more than one emotion at the same time?

I'm trying to define if the emotional state applies to the psyche as a whole (only one emotion at a time), or if is defined by each complex within the psyche (experiencing multiple emotional states at the same time).

Thinking of only the primary emotions that Plutchik defines (ignoring amplitude; terror and apprehension being magnitudes of fear--see PDF)...

Anger / Fear; Disgust / Trust; Sadness / Joy; Anticipation / Surprise

For single emotional experience, one emotion would replace another: joy overrides fear, for example.

For dual emotional states, the condition of "ambivalence," two, distinct emotions are experienced at the same time, that appear to be in conflict, such as trust and anger.

For multiple emotional states, one would experience fear, joy, trust, etc., all at the same time--and I'd be curious to know how you distinguish them.

Please select the response that is the most common condition you experience (as there are always exceptions). Thanks.

Your posts always make me think. Are we ALWAYS in a state of emotion? Or, are emotions a reaction to stimulus in any form, physical, mental, verbal, etc.? As I contemplated this idea I have to admit for me, that I can feel myself move from one emotion to another as it lessens or gets greater, however I only seem to FEEL one emotion at a time. That sounds good until I remember when my daughter was about 3 years old, I was very pregnant with my third child and my oldest son would have been about 18 to 20 months old. In a mall clear across town we had ridden a bus to get to she jumps out of the stroller and takes off through the clothes in a store. Just seconds and there was no sign of her. I went to a cashier and had her call security and put an alert out to watch the exits. Minutes later another cashier announced on the intercom that she had found a lost little girl. The direction of that area was totally different then the way my daughter had taken off in. When I rounded her up, I was very relieved for many reasons. Then she put her hand on her little hip and spouted, "YOU lost me!" I wanted to beat the living daylights out of her. Sad but true. Now that I have reexperienced the event though, I do believe again that I only experienced on emotion at a time, some just move through more quickly then others.